John Brakey on Wake Up Tucson: Pima County Tried to Rig Another Bond Election

This is what cheating with impunity looks like.  Yesterday and nine years after the RTA debacle, an employee at the Pima County Elections Division broke into a sealed part of the central tabulator to hook up an ethernet connection. This occurred after the Logic and Accuracy (L&A) Test was completed and seals were placed prominently on the vulnerable parts of the system.  Since live video feeds show a running total of the number of viewers during transmission, they probably did it when Pima County's video feed left the impression that no one was looking.  This, of course, was hours after John Brakey had left the observation room.  Brakey drove five minutes from his house, spent a couple of hours writing and emailing a number of people about the L&A Test and, by habit, hit the hot link to the election department's live feed.  Moments later, he was watching the act take place before him.

Elections employee breaking the seal (he's worked there 10 years).

John Brakey discussed this incident this morning on the local AM radio show, "Wake Up Tucson".

The following is Brakey's letter to the Secretary of State:

          Michele Reagan
          Arizona Secretary of State

I am an experienced, well trained election observer for three political committees and at least one or more nonpartisan candidates on the Nov 3 ballot. (On bottom have listed groups)

On the morning of Tuesday, Oct 27, I observed the logic and accuracy test at Pima County Elections (PCE).   After the testing was done (about 11am) I went to my home office to write a report of my observation and concerns in this election.  I turned on the live video feed and had it playing on my Samsung flat screen tv.  For several hours as I was writing my report, I saw no activity at PCE.  After I finished my report I emailed at 2:56 pm.  At about 3:00 pm, I notice two men who earlier were part of the L & A test enter the room.  At about 3:03 pm, I took the attached picture of an employee of ten years removing a security seal, and connecting ethernet cables. 

The second person turned on the computer. I could see that he went into a program I had observed earlier that day called ES&S “Election Reporting Manager” (ERM).

At this point I called some friends thinking that this could not be true.  Maybe there were party observers out of camera range.  After several more minutes passed, PCE Director Brad Nelson entered the room and sat on a chair right next to the man on the computer. Mr. Nelson had to have seen that the door to the computer cage was wide open (as seen in picture above).

 No sound comes through the feed but I could see that Brad said something and then started spinning around in the chair acting happy.

 After a few more minutes of trying to figure out what to do, I decided to go and see for myself what was going on.  I live about five minutes from Pima County Elections. When I got to the public observers’ door, it was locked.

I then noticed that Mr. Nelson now was with several other gentlemen on the Westside corner of PCE. I approached him and ask if I could talk to him. I than asked him if was there anything wrong with the live video feed.

He said no and explained to me quickly how it worked.

I then said, “well look at this” and I showed him my smart phone picture of his guy breaking the seal and illegally entering computer cage that holds the Election Management System’s computers that were previously sealed.  I have video of that procedure.

Mr. Nelson acted surprised and said for me to wait from him at the public observers’ door while he figures out what’s going on.

After about 25 minutes, Mr. Nelson returned and told me that he has already called the party observers and that a mistake was made and that the L & A test will be redone at 8:00 AM.

I know that he was dishonest with me. Mr. Nelson had to have known when he entered the room that protocol was violated. One could not have missed this obvious breach under his supervision and in such close proximity.  

I hope that the above information warrants a proper investigation. We are concerned and there are other serious issues that the Secretary of State’s office should investigate with us.

Additionally, I wanted to mention that I deeply appreciate your prompt work last week addressing the issue of verifying elections and hand count audits in Pima County. 

Please help us make sure that election are true and accurate .

Respectfully yours,

John R Brakey, of AUDIT-AZ & Special task force leader for Citizens Oversight for Verifiable Elections:
 

JohnBrakey@gmail.com  520 578 5678 Cell 520 339 2696

CC

Gini Crawford, Chair of the “Taxpayers Against Pima Bonds”   Email: GiniCrawford54@gmail.com

John Kromko, Chair of “Tucson Traffic Justice”,                        Email: jkromko@dakotacom.net

Ignacio Gomez, Chair of the “No on the Sunnyside Override” Committee Email: TheYaquiTrader@live.com

Mission of Citizens Oversight for Verifiable Elections, COVE: To restore public ownership and oversight of elections, as per the Arizona constitution; to protect the “purity of elections”, “run by the people”.  This will ensure the fundamental right of every American citizen to vote, and to have each vote counted as intended in a secure, transparent, impartial, and independently verifiable audited election process.